• by Gavin O'Malley , Staff Writer @mp_gavin, February 14, 2018

How are people hooking up these days?

As a happily married man, I haven’t a clue.

Fortunately, Leanplum lent me some research, which paints a clear picture of how folks are finding love in 2018.

After measuring usage patterns across top dating apps, the mobile marketing platform found that communication tops out on Valentine’s Day.

Indeed, app users send nearly twice as many messages to each other in the week leading up to V-Day, compared with other top hookup holidays like St. Patrick’s Day.

Luckily for the Irish, however, “matches” appear to peak on St. Patty’s Day, which Leanplum’s researchers attribute to a combination of liquid courage and fairer spring weather.

The 4th of July comes out on top for the time consumers spend on dating apps -- likely a product of slower summer schedules and longer days.

Across top apps, a typical user spends 14% more time per app session during the summer holiday, compared with Valentine’s Day.

Compared to other holidays, New Year’s actually underperformed in terms of matches, time in-app, and messaging.

Throughout the year, meanwhile, people are significantly more receptive to push notifications and emails from dating services.

Compared to other offerings, in fact, dating app users are twice as likely to open a push notifications, and 22% more likely to open emails.

No matter the season, it seems, people can’t resist the potential for love.